Level 19 NES tetris killing me

Greetings from Norway. I've been playing daily for the past 3 months with steady progression, and my highscore stands at 505k at the moment. But I cant seem to make it further than 25 lines into level 19.

What kind of time line am I looking at for mastering this speed?

Playing on emulator, but trying to find a ntsc tv set (already purchased a ntsc nes with tetris).

Hi! If you want to you can go to the introduction thread and have a good time and I'll like your post and might give a reply.

505k is a pretty good score! I don't know how consistent you are or what your motivations can be, level 19 depends on the player I would say. You can either try to survive a lot of level 19 games (even trying tetrises), or you can get a better score at level 18 before the transition occurs... Your thing might stand between those two ideas, so maybe you should try some of those two if you haven't already.

level 19 is a bitch. for what it is worth i started learning to play it years ago by lining until i could get to a kill screen relatively often. after that i tried to master DAS (even though i didnt know it was called that at the time). when i felt competent enough, i began to tetris on 19, but only after i realized what DAS could do. to summarize, DAS.

@Qlex - consistency is an issue for sure, atleast on 18 speed. I tend to be a tad tetris-horny in the start and top out early with a good score. Trying to learn to play less aggresive atm.

@wasmachstdugern - thanks man, it's been terrible indeed. The last month or so I've been getting a better understanding of the DAS, but my skillstopping accuracy is lacking finesse to say the least. I guess it's just a matter of putting in the time, but I sorely need my life back lol.

Btw, is anyone else building up some serious calluses on the left thumb? The d-pad is fucking killing me.

I have been a gamer my whole life, but the learning curve on this game is the steepest I have ever encountered. It's just retarded how difficult this game is to master. My goal when I started was to max out within a year, but I see now that I may have bit off more than I can chew.

Good luck @LCK ! I'm no master, but I remember a year ago when I decided to start learning 19. I would literally sit there and watch the pieces pile up and kill me. Over and over again. No score, no lines. Just death. Then eventually, I would learn to control DAS, get a few lines. Slowly improving. I recently got a 485K starting on 19, so you WILL improve! I promise!

Watching other peoples' 19 videos helped me a lot! It helped my brain to start thinking and seeing things I didn't see before.

my advice is this: make the goal of each 19 game not to die. don't try to tetris all the time, just try to make 19 kill screens. when you can do that all the time then you will have mastered the skills necessary to tetris on 19. THEN TRY TO TETRIS ON 19. once you have a feel for DAS and know what you can get away with you can tetris relatively consistently on 19. good luck man!

I remember when I first started out on lvl 19. I was happy to get 10-20 lines...then after a while I got up to 70 something...I was amazed and in disbelief that I could survive that long!...then like terry said...make it a goal to get a 19 kill screen...focus on survival first and foremost. ..go for singles! ! avoid trouble and adapt to the speed. I practiced a lot on b mode trying to get 2 then 3 then 4 tetrises in a row...pretty soon youll have mastered every situation and you'll balance risk and reward much more effectively. ..good luck!!

After stagnating pretty bad the last couple of months I decided to finally get myself a crt tv, and man is it a big difference. After just one hour of playing yesterday I crushed both my line and score pr on 19. Old line pr was 90ish something and new one is 134. Also did 190k in 67 lines.

My accurate input moves are hurting bad tho. I was starting to get real good with flips (basicly 80% success rate on 19), but now they are way off. Im also a bit early out on my tucks a lot of the time. Also the last second tap is totally off. I guess it will improve fast, but still it hurts lol.

Im having some serious stamina issues, wich I think is due to me only playing 19 and little else. I know I should try to play more 18 and hunt more for scores, but im just addicted to the thrill of 19.

Whoa, this is a huuuge improvement, considering where you were september last year. It's pretty awesome that you are going straight into Level 19.
A level 18 maxout should be a piece of cake within the year, if you keep improving like this.

My goal was initially to max within a year, but that was obviously not gonna happen. New goal is a max by the end of august, but I don't know man, this game is a destroyer of souls lol. I have had plenty of both 550 trannys and 300k games in 100 lines on 19, but to chain it together feels so fucking elusive. Even tho I have gotten pretty effin good at this game, I still make so many stupid mistakes at times. I'm crossing my fingers for a shitty summer filled with rainy days lol. Stack on!